Ricerc@Sapienza

Emotion dynamics, how people’s emotions fluctuate across time, represent a key source of
information about people’s psychological functioning and well-being. Investigating emotion
dynamics in the workplace is particularly relevant, as affective experiences are intimately
connected to organizational behavior and effectiveness. In this study, we examined the moderating
role of emotional inertia in the dynamic association between both positive and negative emotions

Emotional inertia is a key feature of emotional dynamics and it refers to the degree to which a current emotional state can be predicted by a previous emotional state. In this study, using the experience sampling method, we examined the relationship between inertia of negative emotions at work and parasympathetic activity, measured by vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV).